Missed Opportunities

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The Stars made a ton of moves in the offseason.They moved Steve Ott and Mike Ribeiro in order to bring in Derek Roy and shed some cap space. Even with all of their activity, there were also some big moves that they missed out on.

One of the biggest problems for Dallas was the blue line play last season. Of course that placed Ryan Suter right in their cross hairs.

The Stars made it to his short list of teams, but it didn’t appear that Dallas wanted to throw the money out that the Minnesota Wild were willing to put on the table. Dallas also missed out on Alexander Semin who signed with the Hurricanes.

The fear of most Stars fans that I have talked to is that Dallas was content with signing Ray Whitney and Jaromir Jagr to boost the offense.

That is compounded with the worry that Dallas overpaid for the veteran forwards. Maybe they bought when the price was too high and they don’t have much left in the tank.

While neither of them had bad seasons, these aren’t long-term solutions either. It essentially puts the Stars in the same position of pursuing offense in free agency next year, much like they were this offseason.

Add that to the Phoenix Coyotes and Los Angeles Kings, who had goalies that appeared to be unstoppable, and now there are three teams in their own division that the Stars have to claw past just for a playoff berth.

The Pacific Division looks as if it will be stacked for the long-term and the Stars don’t have all of the pieces needed yet to win a division title, let alone a Stanley Cup, at this point.

Travel Schedule

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This upcoming season, the Dallas Stars will have the most extensive travel schedule of any team. The league average is a shade less than 40,000 miles for the season, but the Stars will travel nearly 50,000 miles.

When you take a look at the Flyers' travel schedule, it is almost half the distance (27,541).

They are a professional team, so it isn’t like they are all piling on a bus and taking a nine-hour trek through the backwoods of Oklahoma for a game.

Still, the changing of time zones, being in a city for only two days and crossing the continent in a matter of days is pretty taxing, especially when they have to play one of the most physically demanding and punishing sports in the interim.

From December 4-15, the Stars will play six games starting in Vancouver and ending in San Jose.

The first three games of that trip include a trip from Vancouver that moves east to Calgary and north to Edmonton, all in a span of six days. After that, the team goes to Los Angeles to face the Kings.

Add going through customs and the general problems that come with being in an airport, and the players will never have a lot of time to relax.

The travel schedule might even tire the players out more so than the actual games.